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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Jimmy Carter’s Quiet Revolution

Jimmy Carter’s Quiet Revolution

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Jimmy Carter with Ruth Bader Ginsburg at a reception for the National Association of Women Judges on Oct. 3, 1980. Jimmy Carter Presidential Library

Show me the perfect person, and I’ll show you someone you just don’t know yet.  Show me the perfect president, and I’ll show you someone who only had the chance to serve for a day.  Or less.  President Jimmy Carter is an unsung hero.  I wouldn’t be surprised to find that we know only about 1/10 of the fiercely important things he did as president.

h/t Jackie for sending  me this article.

President Jimmy Carter’s diversification of the judiciary is one of the most important and least acknowledged achievements in presidential history: diversifying the federal judiciary.  (Slate)

In December 1976, one month before beginning his single term as president, Jimmy Carter hosted some of the most preeminent civil rights figures and black leaders in the country at the stately governor’s mansion in Atlanta. Rep. Andrew Young, the Atlanta congressman and former executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was there to accept a position as ambassador to the United Nations. Judge Frank M. Johnson, a white federal judge whose landmark rulings helped end public segregation throughout the South, met with Carter to discuss a top role in the Department of Justice. Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., also paid the president-elect a visit.

Then there was Democratic Sen. James Eastland of Mississippi. Eastland, whose name has returned to the news in 2019 following controversial comments by Joe Biden, had little in common with the civil rights leaders who visited Carter that week. Unapologetic about his white supremacist views, Eastland had once called school integration “a program designed to mongrelize the Anglo-Saxon race.” Carter, for his part, had been hoping to establish a level of diversity in his administration never before achieved by an American president. He also intended to diversify the federal judiciary. But Eastland was the powerful chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and by the traditions of that time, individual senators—backed by Eastland’s gavel—directly controlled who was nominated to the federal bench. Carter hadn’t invited Eastland to Atlanta for a job: He was asking him to relinquish this enormous power, and to do it for the sake of integrating the nation’s judgeships.

Eastland proved surprisingly receptive. (It’s possible the senator may not have recognized how serious Carter’s commitment to diversity was; in a bit of political maneuvering, Carter had campaigned against school busing but would enforce it while in office, creating the Department of Education in 1979 in part to focus on civil rights.) Eastland said he was proud to see a southerner in the White House and intended to do whatever he could to make Carter’s presidency a success. If that included allowing the new president to put some nontraditional judges on the bench, so be it.

The linchpin of Carter’s plan to revolutionize and diversify the judiciary depended on the creation of a brand-new federal commission to pick appeals court judges, wresting the power to make judicial nominations away from individual senators. Eastland told Carter he would endorse the commission and its power to select nominees at the appeals level. His one caveat: He couldn’t force his fellow senators to surrender their authority to select district court judges, a jealously guarded patronage system.

But Eastland kept his promise and then some: Over the next four years, a nominating commission was allowed to propose the most diverse array of appeals court judges up to that point in American history. Their nominees were frequently selected by the president, approved by the Judiciary Committee, and consented to by the Senate. What’s more, many senators further ended up deferring to a commission on district court judges, too: Carter would send Democrats handwritten pleas, while Republicans knew that without the White House they would not be the ones selecting nominees anyway.

Eastland kept his promise and then some.

The outcome transformed the judiciary for decades—and set a new precedent for the elevation of diverse nominees.

Read the whole thing.

For this post, let’s focus on Jimmy Carter, other great democratic presidents and our rising Democratic stars.  Maybe as Democrats we need our own PRIDE month.

Reader Interactions

73Comments

  2. 2.

    Steve LaBonne

    There seems to be a trend among historians to re-evaluate Carter’s presidency in a positive way. About time, I would say.

  5. 5.

    Trollhattan

    But, he scolded us about energy and conservation!

    I’m being told he was right about that too, but didn’t say it pretty.

  6. 6.

    banditqueen

    It’s hard to talk about Jimmy Carter without including his wife Rosalynn. She wasn’t trying to control/manipulate the presidency like Nancy Reagan, instead she shared Jimmy’s moral vision, both steadfast, honest, good people. He unites people now and I hope his presidency is ‘reconsidered’ by historians, the media, we shall see. What a blessing they were. I think this will hold for Joe and Jill Biden and the Obamas, and Bill Clinton who had his issues but did care, and Hillary….yes, always, Kamala too.

  7. 7.

    TBone

    Nicole Wallace showed President Carter and Rosalynn Carter on the dais at Dubya’s Inauguration (the only Dems who showed). Then a speech by Carter, saying that Dubya had asked Carter if there was anything he could do in return and President Carter said “There’s where he made his mistake.  I said immediately “There’s a war going on in the Sudan, millions of people are dying. We need to negotiate a peace treaty.” Dubya replied that he hadn’t even picked his cabinet yet, “Gimme three weeks.” President Carter showed up exactly three weeks later and took Condi Rice and Colin Powell under his wing.  A peace treaty followed that saved countless lives. (This is paraphrased).

    Of course, President Carter was given no credit for his contribution.

    https://2001-2009.state.gov/secretary/former/powell/remarks/2005/40468.htm

  9. 9.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I am currently watching the ceremonies in the U. S. Capitol, and — seeing the camera shots from the very top of the dome — am reminded that I first encountered the word “catafalque” on a weekend in late November 1963. Every several years it comes out of cold storage to be dusted off and added to the vocabulary of a new generation.

  13. 13.

    Old School

    @TBone:

    Nicole Wallace showed President Carter and Rosalynn Carter on the dais at Dubya’s Inauguration (the only Dems who showed).

    Pretty sure the Clintons were there.

  15. 15.

    Elizabelle

    Has anyone heard how they will shelter those waiting in line to pay their respects at the Capitol?  It is below freezing daytime weather.

    Giving some thoughts to going up, but just getting over a bad sore throat, and might not be wise.

  16. 16.

    artem1s

    JC’s contribution to diversifying his administration, the judiciary, cabinet appointments, DC and government appointees is the reason the GOP was so set on keeping him to one term and destroying his legacy whenever and however they could. Everything TCF did to destroy Obama’s legacy was a repeat of what the GOP did to Carter. The only part they couldn’t accomplish was keeping him to one term despite McConnell’s efforts.
    Also, Carter bore the brunt of the Vets and GOP blaming him for ‘losing’ Vietnam just like they tried to blame Obama and Biden for the disasters of W and Cheney’s endless wars.

  17. 17.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @banditqueen:

    I was incredibly lucky to know her (and President Carter) ever so slightly — like, she recognised me and we had several good interactions, but I was not close enough to be invited to private dinners or anything, although I’m one degree removed from those who were. She was a lovely and gracious person in the great Southern-lady tradition, and a champion for the mentally challenged. I had a dear friend who was dying from complications of anorexia, and I remember once asking Rosalynn if her mental-health initiatives included eating disorders. She looked me straight in the eye: “They include everything.”

    I agree that Jimmy Carter would never have been Jimmy Carter without Rosalynn at his side.

  19. 19.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Steve LaBonne:

    IIRC, it also took a while for Harry Truman. I’ll be there to cheer whenever Jimmy Carter’s historical reputation is likewise rehabilitated.

  20. 20.

    banditqueen

    @SiubhanDuinne:  That’s a beautiful story–thank you! I realize I should have included how intelligent, focused, passionate, and dedicated both Jimmy and Rosalynn were, and there are even more superlatives that all of us can think of. I’m going to celebrate their lives by trying to be even a bit like them.

  23. 23.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @TBone:

    Oh Lordy Lordy Lordy, TBone, please do not get me started on grey (or whatever-the-fuck colour it’s supposed to be) hair. I’m looking at 83 my next birthday, and I haven’t a clue how to describe my hair colour. Grey? Light brown? Mouse? Beige? Tweed?

  25. 25.

    Jackie

    @banditqueen:

    It’s hard to talk about Jimmy Carter without including his wife Rosalynn. She wasn’t trying to control/manipulate the presidency like Nancy Reagan, instead she shared Jimmy’s moral vision, both steadfast, honest, good people.

    They were true equal partners in everything – once Rosalynn let Jimmy know she wasn’t going to be Edith Bunker to his Archie-ness.

    There’s a great article published around their 75th wedding anniversary about Jimmy’s conversion from male chauvinistic pig after leaving the Navy to becoming an equal co-partner in marriage.

  26. 26.

    Chris

    @Steve LaBonne:

    It’s okay to honor Democratic presidents after they’re dead, not when they’re alive, and certainly not when they’re actually in office.  (Truman.  LBJ.  Now Carter).

  31. 31.

    prostratedragon

    Thanks for this. From summaries, it had seemed that his judiciary legacy would be one of the more important aspects of his term to remember, and this look at how it came about is fascinating.

  32. 32.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Chris: I just hope we don’t have to look forward to future Paul Campos posts about how Carter was collecting too much pension money or something.

  33. 33.

    SuzieC

    What a lovely photo.  I want to watch his state funeral but will it be impaired by OSG’s hideous mug?

  34. 34.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Miki:

    Me.

    The Navy Hymn (“Eternal Father, strong to save”) always, invariably, every time, without exception, makes me cry.

  36. 36.

    eemom

    What a beautiful photo of President Carter and RBG.

    I heard her speak live once, at my husband’s law school graduation in 1993, just before Clinton appointed her to the SCt. She talked about being a working mom, and related an anecdote about one of the kid’s school calling her when the kid got sick and she wasn’t able to pick him/her up. I don’t remember the exact details, but I do recall that she told the school authority: “This child has TWO parents.”

  38. 38.

    Jackie

    From the link WaterGirl posted:

    When Carter took office, just eight women had ever been appointed to one of the 500 federal judgeships in the country. (For the purposes of this article, I’m referring to the district courts, appellate courts, and the Supreme Court.) Carter appointed 40 women, including eight women of color. Similarly, before Carter, just 31 people of color had been confirmed to federal courts, often over Eastland’s strenuous disapproval. The peanut farmer from Plains appointed 57 minorities to the judiciary. (He also had more robes to fill: A 1978 bill expanded the federal judiciary by 33 percent, or 152 seats.)

    P.S.

    What a beautiful picture from Ozark featured today!♥️

  40. 40.

    JML

    It’s a shame Carter didn’t get a chance to pick a Supreme Court Justice. I think he would have done well there. (and we would have been so much better off if Reagan had gotten one less…)

    Carter is treated more kindly by historians than politicians because Carter was right about a lot of stuff even if he wasn’t effective at getting some of it done. That’s fair, i think. And his presidency is a reminder that you have to be able to do the politics of the job in order to win the day.

    Carter was also the first president to use his VP effectively in the modern era…and one of the few ever to that point. he treated Walter Mondale as an ally to be worked with and deployed, not an appendage to be hidden away and sent to foreign funerals, and it’s opened up possibilities for others in the future, mostly to the good (Gore, Biden, Harris) and sometimes for evil (Cheney), but it definitely changed the nature of the Vice-Presidency.

  42. 42.

    billcoop4

    The Navy Hymn (“Eternal Father, strong to save”) always, invariably, every time, without exception, makes me cry.

    It is one of the great ones.

     

    BC

  44. 44.

    lowtechcyclist

    @TBone:

    Nicole Wallace showed President Carter and Rosalynn Carter on the dais at Dubya’s Inauguration (the only Dems who showed).

    So Bill Clinton wasn’t there?

    Just wondering about a certain tradition.

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Raven:

    I love it, but I also kind of dread it now, because I know I’m going to be a damp mess before the end of the first refrain. It’s a gorgeous hymn, though (says this non-believer who loves good Protestant Hymnals). Including it in your dad’s Navy video was a nice and appropriate thing to do, and I feel honoured that he and I shared the same reaction.

  48. 48.

    Miki

    Georgia on my mind ….

    Followed by Lord of all Hopefulness – my mom chose that for her funeral, but instructed us to sing it “with gusto.”

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @billcoop4:

    Yes. It’s beautiful. “Oh hear us as we cry to Thee/For those in peril on the sea.”

    Jeez. Now they’re playing “Be Thou my vision” — another gorgeous hymn that always starts the waterworks. WHY DOES MSNBC WANT ME TO CRY ALL AFTERNOON???

  55. 55.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Miki:

    The alternate set of words. I first think of it as “Be Thou my vision.” Lovely, no matter the text.

  59. 59.

    SuzieC

    @SiubhanDuinne: That Navy hymn always gets me too.  They sang it at my son’s graduation from boot camp and I embarrassed him by breaking out into floods of tears at the line “to those in peril on the seas.”

  63. 63.

    jowriter

    @SiubhanDuinne: Me, too.  My dad was Navy in WW2, and when we watched JFK’s funeral in the wayback, my dad told me what the music was.  I cry every time I hear it.

  64. 64.

    banditqueen

    @SiubhanDuinne: @Jackie:  I’ve always looked to people who know how to do the right thing for inspiration, so definitely the ‘WWJ&RD’–they helped me see the south in a different way, marriage as a loving commitment, leading as dedication to do what’s good for the country and hoping (I guess) that the country will learn eventually. We’ll see if his leadership both in his presidency and after will finally serve as a foundation for what the US can be. This may go for dems in general :(     And yes, Carter was my first vote in 1980.

  67. 67.

    Baud

    I don’t know that I’ve seen his brought up. Good article by CNN.

    During Carter’s presidency, the Internal Revenue Service sought to enforce anti-discrimination laws at all-White Christian schools that many evangelicals had built to defy the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, which declared racially segregated schools unconstitutional, Balmer says.

     

    To enforce the Brown decision, the IRS refused to grant tax-exempt status to schools like Bob Jones University in South Carolina that practiced racial discrimination, a move that White evangelical leaders unfairly blamed on Carter, Balmer says.

     

    It was White evangelical opposition to racial integration, not abortion, that originally motivated many evangelicals to get involved in politics in the 1970s, Balmer says.

  68. 68.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: There were indeed two strains.

    Jill LePore (repost) taught us that Nixon’s hangers-on were behind the push to use abortion to divide Democrats.

    As many have discussed here, school desegregation, busing, and all that resulted from Brown v Board of Education was a huge rallying cry for them for decades. Of course the GOP would also use that as a cudgel against Democrats.

    And they’re continuing to use it today – DEI, affirmative action at universities and elsewhere, programs to cancel student debt, Title IX, etc., etc., are all part of the picture. Since Roe is gone, it’s not surprising that they’re ramping up the latter now.

    They don’t want any publicly funded social programs. They want social services to be run through their churches that they control. They don’t want any publicly funded schools. They want education to be run through their private schools that they control. They don’t want any independent power structures that challenge their primacy.

    It’s all about forcing their preferred social order on everyone else, while (as their support of Donnie and his minions, and Wilhoit’s Law codifies) they are not bound by it themselves.

    Grr…

    Thanks.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  69. 69.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Raven:

    I wonder where that punk who wouldn’t shake hands with the Vice President is?

    On the Road to Perdition, I hope.

  70. 70.

    Denali5

    Thank you for this post. Wish I could get down to Washington to pay my respects. President Carter was truly a great man. And I thought after listening to Kamala’s eulogy that she should be our President. What might have been!

  72. 72.

    moonbat

    Thank you, WaterGirl! You and Anne Laurie are the only folks who have me checking in here these days. I have always seen Carter as one our our most deserving but least appreciated presidents. I’m glad he’s getting some in-depth analysis and not just the damning with faint praise obits I’ve been seeing most of this last week.

  73. 73.

    WaterGirl

    @moonbat: Hang in there.  Most of us have kind of been in a state of shock and it takes awhile to get your feet back under you.  I know I’m still trying to find my way.

    I am loving all of Rose’s posts, you might find you like those, too?

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